Census Bureau said behind schedule for 2010 count

WASHINGTON 
With the 2010 census fast approaching, computer glitches, operational missteps and ballooning costs could overwhelm the government's ability to conduct the once-a-decade count of the nation's population, congressional investigators said Thursday.

Reports released by the Government Accountability Office show critical preparations for the 2010 census are behind schedule and the Census Bureau has no clear strategy for improving the count of hard-to-reach minorities.

Testifying in House and Senate hearings, GAO officials also said the agency was suffering because it lacked a permanent director and it needed to do a better job of hiring trained staff who could manage a budget and handle information technology systems.

"They are under the gun," said Robert Goldenkoff, GAO's director of strategic issues.

The GAO's comments are the latest to highlight difficulties for the census, which now costs $14 billion and has been beset by partisan bickering. Disagreements over the handling of the census were part of the reason GOP Sen. Judd Gregg, President Barack Obama's pick as commerce secretary, withdrew his name last month.

Thomas Mesenbourg, the Census Bureau's acting director, told Congress the agency was taking steps to fix some of the mistakes and remained confident that preparations were on track. He noted that the bureau was now training 140,000 employees for address canvassing, the first major operation in the 2010 census, which begins later this month.

Mesenbourg acknowledged the bureau was facing special challenges of counting minorities as well as a record number of people displaced from their homes due to the mortgage foreclosure crisis.

He said the bureau would be spending part of the $1 billion it received in the economic stimulus package for expanded advertising and partnership programs with community leaders that are specifically aimed at improving outreach on the local level.

"We are well on our way to a successful enumeration," Mesenbourg said.

Lawmakers weren't so sure.

"The 2010 census is approaching a state of emergency," said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., who chairs a Senate panel overseeing the census. "Significant work still has to be done, and the bureau does not have a director in place to assist them in making these critical decisions."

In their reports, the GAO said the bureau failed to complete checks on several systems used to compile address lists that will be critical to mailing out census forms, canvassing homes and following up with people who don't submit responses.

Investigators cited the difficulties in reaching out to Latinos and people of Middle Eastern descent, who could be particularly skittish due to immigration raids and other stepped-up law enforcement since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In its 2010 budget request, the Obama administration increased Commerce Department funding by $4.5 billion for the census. That money is in addition to the $1 billion received in the stimulus package.

Obama has yet to name a new Census Bureau director to lead the high-stakes count, which will be used to redraw congressional districts and distribute federal money. Last week, Obama introduced former Washington Gov. Gary Locke as his nominee for commerce secretary after Gregg withdrew.

Early attention to head the Census Bureau focused on Kenneth Prewitt, a former director who led the 2000 census, but Prewitt withdrew his name from consideration last month.

After Gregg was nominated in February, black and Latino groups questioned his commitment to the Census Bureau given his past record in seeking to limit the agency's budget. That prompted the White House to indicate it might take greater control over the bureau.

But amid GOP criticism – and after the nomination of Locke, an Asian-American – the White House clarified that it will "work closely with the census director" and said the Census Bureau would not be removed from the Commerce Department.

House GOP leaders have since called for a census free from "partisan interference" from White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, the former chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The lawmakers threatened to file a lawsuit if the White House becomes overly active in deciding how the 2010 census is handled.

Democrats and Republicans for years have disagreed on whether the census should be based on a strict head count or cross-checked against a "statistical adjustment" to include hard-to-track people, particularly minorities, who might have been missed.

On Thursday, Goldenkoff told a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee that census directors in previous administrations often had discussions with the White House about their work and "that's not necessarily a bad thing." But he said the input had its limits.